Entertainment

* Lea Salonga
The site www.celebritiesph.com on Miss Lea Salonga: “This Tony Award-winning Filipino singer and actor is best known for her portrayal of Kim in the musical ‘Miss Saigon’. Lea Salonga has achieved both domestic and international recognition in the fields of acting, theatre, and singing. However, her fame in the highly competitive international arena remains unparalleled, and she is the only Filipino actor to have achieved such popularity and won various awards for one single role in the field of musical theatre.” Obviously, every Filipino pumps with pride whenever we speak of Miss Salonga’s awards and accolades especially in international theatre. She is indeed all that and more!

* Kuh Ledesma

Ma. Soccorro Ledesma or Kuh Ledesma for short has a music career that spans 25 years, which includes three hundred performances and various awards given locally and internationally. She is known as the Pop Diva of the Philippine music industry. She was born on March 16, 1955 in Bacolod City, Philippines. She has a daughter named Isabella Gonzalez. While taking up Nursing in college, she joined the Ensalada band, later to be called the Lastiko band. With some of her band mates, they went to Manila to form the Music & Magic, band which proved pivotal to her career. In the 1990s, she collaborated with the best American and Filipino musicians, arrangers, and composers to launch the “Precious” album. She advocates classic songs and feels strongly in preserving them. To date, she has a recording company Bravo Records which gives her more freedom in promoting her kind of music. She is also known to help new artists in developing their talents. In her official website, kuhledesma.net some international appearances are as follows: “In March 1990, Ledesma appeared as a guest performer in a Gilbert Becaud’s television show in Paris where she sang Bulaklak (The Rose) in three languages (Filipino, English and French). In July 1990, she was the Philippines’ representative-performer at the international television special “Earth 90”. Earth 90 was a show that celebrated the importance of the environment and was aired simultaneously around 80 countries. Ledesma was then on stage with artists such as Olivia Newton-John and John Denver. On the same year, Ledesma also joined the NHK-KAYO parade in Tokyo.” Several other international performances add to her credit but what is most important is that she also travels widely here and abroad to “deliver values formation lectures and inspirational and motivational talks”, according to wikipedia.org.

* Cesar Montano

Cesar Manhilot, or more popularly known as Cesar “Buboy” Montano, was born on August 1, 1962 in Malate, Manila to a lawyer and a Seventh-day Adventist mother. He is a known Filipino actor and director. He first started as a stunt man for famous action actors before going into playing a major role himself. Then, he played numerous B movies before venturing into the action genre. This is where he got more recognition as an actor. Wikipedia.org on his awards: “He has won numerous acting awards, especially in his internationally acclaimed movies, such as Hollywood’s The Great Raid, Panaghoy sa Suba (The Call of the River), José Rizal, Muro Ami (Reef Hunters) and Bagong Buwan (New Moon)”. He ran for a Senate seat in the May 2007 Elections but unfortunately lost by landslide. He has also released an album and singles to share his passion for singing, and also models for various wholesome products. He is presently the host of Singing Bee, a TV show aired daily in ABS-CBN with ordinary folks inclined to singing as contestants.